It is known to remove a can from a rotating turret by means of a rotating star wheel which is arranged so that adjacent prongs of the star wheel embrace the can and sweep it off the turret.
It is also known in the can conveying art to convey a can on a conveyor belt beyond a wheel or pulley around which the belt turns back on itself, and to cause such a can, when toppling off the end of the conveyor belt, to strike a bar mounted adjacent the wheel in such a way that the can lands upside down on a receiving surface.
In copending Ser. No. 07/193,452 filed May 6, 1988 there is described an apparatus for electro-coating cans. In that apparatus, each electro-coated can leaves a rotating, electro-coating turntable with a quantity of spent electrolyte contained therein, which electrolyte has to be emptied from the can into an electrolyte recovery channel before the can can proceed to a next production stage in which the electro-coating is cured and so hardened.
The present invention seeks to provide an apparatus for removing such electro-coated cans from the electro-coating turret, and for depositing them inverted on to a receiving surface, all without damaging the cans or the relative delicate, uncured electro-coating carried thereby.
One electro-coating apparatus embodying the present invention, and its method of operation, and various modifications of such apparatus and method (all according to the present invention), will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings.